Vertigo Goes Behind The Iron Curtain in Poland with ‘Marzi: A Memoir’ [Preview]

On sale later this month from Vertigo is Marzi: A Memoir, a new graphic novel written by Marzena Sowa and illustrated by Sylvain Savoia that recalls scenes from Sowa's life as a young girl living in Poland in the last years of Communism. The book contains the sort of Iron Curtain imagery you'd imagine, but seen through the innocent eyes of a child. Marzi, as she's called in the book, encounters the indignities of hours-long lines for groceries and eating American toothpaste as a substitute for candy, but her reactions are completely different from that of the adults in the story. To Marzi, that's just life.

Vertigo's released a six-page preview of Marzi that details she and her friends' experiences with the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, which she writes defined a generation of children. You can read the preview after the cut.

Written by MARZENA SOWA; Art and cover by SYLVAIN SAVOIA

"I am Marzi, born in 1979, ten years before the end of communism in Poland. My father works at a factory, my mother at a dairy. Social problems are at their height. Empty stores are our daily bread. I'm scared of spiders, and the world of adults doesn't seem like a walk in the park."

Told from a young girl's perspective, Marzena Sowa's memoir of a childhood shaped by politics feels remarkably fresh and immediate. Structured as a series of vignettes that build on one another, MARZI is a compelling and powerful coming-of-age story that portrays the harsh realities of life behind the Iron Curtain while maintaining the everyday wonders and curiosity of childhood. With open and engaging art by Sylvain Savoia, MARZI is a moving and resonant story of an ordinary girl in turbulent, changing times.